I've wondered why people are drawn to fear. We've all seen the trailers for the new movie 2012, and the other paranormal movies out this year, including alien abduction and evil ghosts.

When we fear we get an adrenalin rush. It's part of our reptillian brain's reaction in order to survive in a world of danger... which as a species when we could only rely on our brains to survive from predators it made sense. We are actually physically quite vulnerable - not that fast, not that strong and not provided with natural fighting tools, such as sharp teeth.

So when I see the headlines that are suppose to instill fear - I start to wonder how many people 'buy into it' and 'why?'

History has shown that most doomesday predictions never come true. So why do people still come back for more?

Probably the adrenalin rush is one thing, as it helps them fill in something that might be missing internally, i.e. fulfillment on a personal level - gives them the 'high' they might experience just by being happy and fulfilled - possible answer.

Another theory is that we need these scenarios played out so we can think about them, see them for what they are (projects about something that 'could' happen, but doesn't have to happen. This is a positive way of looking at the idea of being drawn to the worst case scenario. We play the movie in our head, so we don't have to drop the bomb to see the devastation it might cause - The bombs that were dropped on Japan were very valuable lessons and so was the genocide of the Nazis. By having movies or even the internet as an outlet for our possible future scenarios, we can prevent them from happening.

This is a good thing - really as long as we don't buy into the hype - we keep our power intact.

BTW: Here's a link to an article about all the end of the world predictions that never came true -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091104/sc_livescience/10faileddoomsdaypredictions